He knows he's there, loitering.
He's not stupid, he'd felt his presence as soon as he'd walked into the complex, hear his footsteps as he stepped closer and closer to him, step by step, staircase by staircase, until he smells a familiar aftershave that makes his knees quiver silently, but his shoulders and back are dead straight as he doesn't turn, pretending to work.
He picks up and touches slides, vials, papers, anything to ground him and prevent him from turning around and for a while, it works well. It's quiet, save for the hollow conversations coming from downstairs in the precinct's main area and the offices littered around the place, but seemingly not quiet enough as he can hear him breathing behind him still.
It takes a while, but finally, there is clicking, most likely that of a watch being checked for time and he almost bristles, but manages to get away without doing it somehow. Then there are more footsteps, tension ramping up as when he was originally at the door, he's not in his space and the air almost crackles with anticipation as there's a beat before he speaks.
"You know, you can't just ignore me forever." He hears from behind him as a bead of sweat forms on his forehead and snakes down his cheek while his teeth try to erase themselves from existence in his mouth from how hard he's gritting them. 'Watch me try, Potter.'
Harry Potter, alumni of Gryffindor, Order of Merlin recipient and hardworking Auror is standing in the middle of the room, eyes flickering everywhere as his former lover, Draco Malfoy, now Dr. Julian Albert, alumni of Slytherin, son of a Death Eater and runaway from the Wizarding Realm stands with his back to him, overanalyzing a sample in a vain attempt to pretend he doesn't exist.
That it doesn't fucking hurt still.
"Draco-'' He doesn't mean to, but it seems that Barry in a way, has rubbed off on him for as soon as his former name leaves the other's lips, is every possible projectile in his range of motion that doesn't pertain to any current CCPD cases being used to attempt to clobber Harry to death, given the look in Draco's eyes.
Thankfully, or rather, not thankfully for Draco's case, he's come armed with his wand in case of this and a few spells here and there leave him surrounded by smoking piles of material, but unscathed as he reemerges from under a table to find Draco facing him now finally, seething with unshed tears and chest heaving.
"Will you just listen to me!?"
"No, no, I will not fucking listen to you, Potter." Draco's voice is eerily calm despite everything that's just transpired. "I don't have to listen to your bullshit, I've heard enough of it."
"Draco, you won't even hear me out! I've been calling you, OWLing you, tracking you all over the Muggle world and the Wizarding World, for months!"
"Why the hell would I want to talk to you, Potter?" Draco hissed, not unlike his old house's mascot could or would, the almost intent to murder in his eyes apparent now. "As far as I remember, drunk on the night before our wedding, you were fucking Ginny Weasley!"
"I'm not the one who ran away for almost 2 years and cut all ties with everyone I know afterwards instead of me explaining what was /really/ happening and talking it out!"
"Oh, like you can come up with an excuse or a lie good enough to justify that!"
"I wasn't fucking her!" Harry practically roared and it actually quietened Draco as the men stood at odds with each other, his hands clenched in fists of unbridled rage before they're let go and he slumped, heartbreak filling the space left. "She played me, Draco. She...she showed up at the house, she wanted to talk, so I went into the other room with her because I knew you and Hermoine would get upset and given Ron was there...it wasn't a good thing."
"No fucking Hippogriff shit, Potter." He's still angry, but he was listening, despite his want not to as Harry continued talking. "She cornered me, screaming at me, pleading with me to take her back and we were arguing the entire time as I said no. I knew that if someone heard us or noticed I was missing that we'd be found. She knew that as well. As soon as you opened that door, the millisecond Draco, she launched herself on me and wrapped her legs around me as I was attempting to pull her off."
Harry scrubbed at his rather bearded face as he said this, head hung. "I went after you, but you'd already left and I thought you'd have gone home, but when I couldn't find you there, I went to your parent's house, but your mother said you'd gone. Taken off. I searched for you for fucking ages, I made myself sick so much I had to take time off work. Then an Auror contact I have based here at Ilvermorny, a professor who teaches for the Horned Serpent house, Floo'ed me in late July of last year and found a trail for you in the Muggle world. I had to jump on it."
"For what point!?" Draco exploded, marching up to the man with a feverish energy that could only be described as frenetically charged, crossed with anger, practically shaking with it. "That whole monologue you just spilled is the biggest load of codswallop I've ever heard in my-"
Harry cuts him off quickly with a searing kiss and it practically blows all of Draco's words he was preparing to spit back into the winding caverns of his mind, body in the present backing up at Harry's utter annoying insistence to collide with a click against the wood of one of his many desks, suit pants connecting heavily against the other's slacks. Their relationship, as a whole, had always been like this. Hard, fast and at times, without strings or care, as shown by example here without much consideration by both at their location or timing.
He doesn't know just how they get there, but soon enough, Draco's pants are unzipped and his back once in Harry direction, is practically becoming one with the glass window that looks out into the city behind him as his hands grip silky black hair he's not touched in years. It's been so long since he had any attention, the heartbreak of Harry's so-called betrayal, his possession by Savitar and then, his work with Team Flash keeping personal time out.
He shouldn't be doing this, allowing this and deep down whether he wants to admit it or not, forgiving him so easily, but he can't bring himself to care. The world's a mass of just colours and noises he can't make out anymore and despite the voice inside his head, the rational part of him that is screaming at him to get up and walk away, he stays like he's glued to the concrete as the actions continue.
For a split second, they meet eyes, blue to green and he can see everything he's been avoiding since the moment he sensed he'd walked in. The pain, the panic, the exhaustion, the fear, the relief, the genuinity. It overwhelmed him as Savitar used to when he was still under his control, only in a different way that leaves him falling apart, sobbing and gasping incoherent words like they mean anything to either of them.
Oh, if Team Flash could see him now, withering and broken like he used to be before they helped him under a new person, who wasn't even new at all. It would shame him.
He wants the feeling to last and tries to draw it out, memorise it and let it wrap around him like a security blanket, but a familiar weary feeling washes over him and he bucks Harry off like he's a trombone slide in an orchestra and pulls him to his feet, leaving him bewildered and standing there awkwardly as Barry Allen enters the room. "Hey, Julien, do you have the paperwork for the case I was working on up here as well as the samples? Captain Sigh wants them as soon as possible."
"Yes, as always." Draco doesn't know how or where he finds the composure to look Barry in the eyes after seeing (and feeling) Harry's on him, but he's quick and cunning as a snake should be, gathering what has been asked for (and actually worked on) before dumping it unceremoniously into Barry's hands. "I apologise for the delay."
"No worries, Juel." Barry smiles, but his gaze soon turns to Harry, who's still in the room, red-cheeked, eyes cast down and uncomfortable. "Barry Allen and you are…?"
"He's Arthur." Julien speaks confidently all of a sudden before Harry's mouth is even fully open, wanting to seriously kick himself afterwards, but not stopping. "Arthur Kipps. He's my…" He hesitates, looking between the two, before he finds the words to say again that he'd lost only moment ago. "-my partner. Arthur is my partner, from England. Where I'm planning to return to once my contract here in Central is up. He came for a visit and I forgot. My fault."
"Oh. Wow. You never...wow, okay." He almost is smug at the look of absolute surprise and bewilderment both Barry and Harry are sporting, but keeps his expression neutral as his nerves are cool while they shake hands and he bids them goodbye before exiting, allowing Draco to turn back to Harry, clearly still angry, but softer. "Dinner, my apartment, 7. Clear?"
Harry says nothing for a moment, before he nods slowly. "Crystal."
"Good, I'll send you the address on note paper though a Floo. Now make like a hoard of Cornish Pixies and fuck off, this is a lab and workplace, not a sex dungeon for you to shag or suck me off to your life's content." It's not said with malice so much, more strictness than anything. "We will talk about this later in the privacy of my home away from this place. The last thing I need is to be ousted out of this job before I'm ready."
"Fine." Harry goes to leave, but soon turns back as Draco's back is to him once more. "I love you Draco. I promise I do. Still. Please try and believe me. See you tonight."
He doesn't respond, even as Harry waits somehow again before he finally leaves and lets him off, but in the quiet under the sound of breath, there's a response. "I fucking hate you, but I love you too, Potter. Don't let me down again."
He needs to stop getting himself into these things.